Jihadist attacks in Bamako leave more than 70 dead

The jihadist attacks on Tuesday 17 September in Bamako left more than 70 dead and 200 wounded, one of the largest human losses in recent years in the ranks of the Malian security forces. A security source reported 77 dead and 255 wounded. An authenticated confidential official document reports a hundred deaths and names 81 victims. daily life Bamako afternoon announced on the cover “the funeral of about fifty gendarmerie students” this Thursday.

So far, military authorities have been careful not to communicate the precise human cost of this operation, the scale of which has long been unprecedented in the capital, contradicting the ruling junta’s proclamations about the success of its strategy. The general staff was content to acknowledge “Some loss of life”in particular gendarmerie students, while various sources were already reporting a very high number of deaths.

The Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM, affiliated with al-Qaeda), which claimed responsibility for the operation, said on its communications channels that several dozen of its men had caused hundreds of deaths and injuries over the course of nine hours. They attacked the camp, including members of the Russian Wagner group, an ally of the military regime in Bamako. They then killed its fighters, it said.

Tuesday’s attacks came a day after the first anniversary of the Alliance of Sahel States, which brings together Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, three countries facing jihadist expansion and mired in crisis. The military regimes, which have taken the lead thanks to a succession of coups since 2020, have broken the historic alliance with the former French colonial power and have turned militarily and politically towards other partners, including Russia.

“Locating responsibilities”

The jihadists attacked the gendarmerie school before dawn and stormed the capital’s airport. They temporarily took control of part of the platform and the presidential pavilion where the head of state and his guests arrive and depart. GSIM propaganda images show men destroying devices. The capital has not been the scene of such an operation since 2016, while other regions of the country are victims of almost daily attacks.

The chair of the African Union commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and the government of Mali’s neighbour Senegal condemned the attacks. The French embassy expressed its condolences. Jean-Hervé Jézéquel, director of the Sahel project at the International Crisis Group, notes that “We have to go back a certain number of years” find an attack of such magnitude in the capital. And “Here we are, in the heart of Bamako, in a gendarmerie school and, above all, at the international airport.”.

One of the hypotheses is that “The jihadists are trying to tell the Malian authorities that they can be attacked anywhere and that, therefore, the big cities must also be protected”and relieve pressure on rural areas, where jihadists are more deeply rooted, he said.

Tuesday’s coup undermines the junta’s rhetoric that its strategy of rupture, new foreign partnerships and increased military efforts have allowed it to reverse the tide against the jihadists after years of descent into hell.

The attacks have prompted widespread condemnation and unity over the ordeal in Mali. In a context of severe restrictions on expression under the junta, hardly any personalities have been heard to denounce a possible security failure by the authorities.

Rare dissonant voice, everyday life. New horizon said in one “It is time to place responsibilities at all levels”Many Malians took to social media to call for sanctions against those responsible. The attacks also raised fears of retribution against certain groups of people due to community amalgamations.

“We can return time and again to the policies of recent years that have always given perhaps too strong a primacy to a military response.”says Jean-Hervé Jézéquel, “In addition to the military tool, which remains essential, we must also put forward a political response, a political dialogue.”